Relive Sam Hill’s phenomenal season in the 2017 Enduro World Series

The season which saw the racing go to the very last round at Finale where Hill made history.

Sam Hill may not have won the actual final round of the 2017 EWS at Finale but he finished 3rd. Adrien Dailly, his nearest – and indeed only – rival in the Overall finished 4th. Hill ended the season on 3,410 points, Dailly on 3,280 points and Greg Callaghan on 2,950 points.

It’s fair to say that Sam Hill has not faded away like veteran downhill racing superstars are supposed to do. Not only has he stayed around in competitive riding, far from embarrassing himself he’s actually somehow added to his status as a mountain bike legend.

With his clinching of the men’s 2017 Enduro World Series title Hill has now surely passed into the pantheon of mountain bike Gods no less, alongside Tomac, Anne-Caro and T-Mo. Such multi discipline-spanning winning status puts him in this super rarefied status of downhill Champs who’ve also won in other bike disciplines (XC, Enduro and BMX respectively).

He’s not Instagramming. Post-final stage results checking to check if he had managed to seal the deal. (Pic: Enduro World Series)

Despite all the talk of an ex-downhiller winning the EWS being ‘bad’ for enduro, it’s turned out to be pretty much the opposite. Hill really is a complete one off. Well, nearly. The only male racer in history who could have done what Hill has does by winning the EWS is John Tomac.

In a downhill season that saw plenty of grumblings about boring tracks and the lack of gnarl, Hill and the EWS put on a show that really got folk thinking about what makes good racing. We like to watch racing to come away feeling impressed and inspired. Arguably downhill racing doesn’t do that for a lot of people.

Enduro has stepped up its game. We can’t wait for the next round of this year’s EWS to roll around.